Beating the Winter Blahs

I have a major case of cabin fever, as you may have guessed from the beach countdown. So I decided the laundry room needed an overhaul. After all, it is the first thing people see when they come into my house. Unless they use the front door, and we just don't.

The laundry room gets lots of use. It's where all the wet shoes and boots get kicked, where the dogs eat, and the laundry gets done. And it sure showed.

The walls were dinged and dirty, some of the hooks were broken, one of the bifold doors was off it's hinges...the list goes on.

So I got ready to paint, then realized that even a fresh coat of paint would not fix what ailed my walls. They had been repaired many times. The texture on them was uneven. It was a mess.

I called a plaster man, who retextured my walls with a process call "skip troweling". They look
amazing! Then I painted. Had a neighbor put a decorative edge on an oak board I bought for the new coat rack. I stained it, and put on new, big wrought iron-looking hooks. Tossed the old
grungy rug and put in a new one. Put new hinges on the bifold doors, and bought a slick new airtight container on wheels for the 40 pound bag of dogfood we keep just to the left of the washing machine. Made a new valence for the window.

There was a moment when I entertained the idea of painting it a fun color-terra cotta or lime green. But in the end, as it always does, boring beige won out. Actually, the color is "Muslin", from Benjamin Moore, and it is really quite nice. Goes with everything. Very neutral. It is close to a color the realtors here call "relocation beige". Houses of executives of the big companies in town new on the market get neutralized with this color. All the fun colors go, in an effort to appeal to the masses, who can then turn around and paint terra cotta and lime green.

So, I realized that my house is "neutralized."

Does that mean I am ready to relocate, maybe to someplace warmer? I know the mid-Atlantic states have tons more snow that we do, but their cherry blossoms will still bloom on schedule, while we are still frozen.

Darn! Now I have the winter blahs again.

WILD on the beach!

FYI: Voting has opened in the Mommy Blog of the Year Contest. Vote for Veggie Mom and Aunt Julie...Pretty please? Thanks!

I'm back from my beach vacation, and am slowly getting back into the swing of things. Today, I must have done 14 loads of laundry! The little black skimmer isn't the only wildlife we saw on the beach. Check out these photos...

Guess the Keep Off the Dune sign only applies to you if you can read!

My niece, The Wild One, and I took a jeep tour of the northern beaches, north of Corolla, in hopes of getting a glimpse of the wild Spanish mustangs. We were successful, as you can see. In all the years of going to the Outer Banks, I can't believe we hadn't done this before. We had a ball! I get excited at home when I see a deer in my neighborhood. Just imagine seeing a wild horse.

More about them another day. Gotta "hit the hay," as my horsey friends would say. It's way past my bedtime.

Thanks for all the book suggestions, too. I'll be letting you know what I ended up with.